Progress in education has gone into reverse with 1.6 billion children from 188 countries being deprived of months of schooling due to the pandemic. In fact, 450 million children are in “learning poverty” – not being able to read a simple text by age 10, and this is an acute phenomena in many developing countries. No economic health or climate recovery can even be complete or ever be sustained without a recovery in education. There is an urgent need to reverse the growth of the education crisis and invest in scalable solutions that can deliver both an inclusive and equitable education for the world’s children. Education has been a victim of the crisis but at the same time it is also the solution.
High Touch-High Tech (HTHT) aims to provide quality personalised learning that can improve learning outcomes at scale, as it combines the power of human touch through a teacher with the power of adaptive technology. With the support of AI learning technology, HTHT can tailor lessons and support teachers to provide personalised guidance and more active learning experience and nurture students in 21st century skills including creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration. A prototype project conducted in Vietnam demonstrated that the learning gains in just one semester through HTHT is equivalent to two years of learning. Additionally, teachers reported significant improvements in their personalised teaching practices. HTHT has also been implemented in South Korea benefitting 1,200 K-12 students and 1,800 college students.
Through this Call to Action, The Education Commission and Education Commission Asia will spearhead the HTHT for All Global Consortium to create a globally connected community that aims to catalyse the global ecosystem and bring various stakeholders together to address bottlenecks and accelerate the scale-up of HTHT worldwide. With the support of its country partners, The Education Commission and Education Commission Asia aim to design, pilot and evaluate the HTHT framework in Cambodia (partnering Teach for Cambodia), Indonesia (partnering Tanoto Foundation), and the Philippines (partnering Ayala Foundation). A rapid feasibility study will also be conducted in Ghana with the support of the Ministry of Education. The goal for this Call to Action is to reach at least 20,000 students and improve their mathematics, literacy and 21st century skills as well as equip 1,200 teachers and school leaders with personalised and active teaching approaches; catalysing three country ecosystems ready for scale.